


Sunshine Was a Sweet Place

by MoonlightSalsa



Series: Miscellaneous Mix 'n' Match [2]
Category: Dare Me (TV 2019), Dare Me - Megan Abbott
Genre: Gen, Happy Ending, Memories, Moving On, Olympics, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25219528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightSalsa/pseuds/MoonlightSalsa
Summary: Tacy Slaussen is years away from Sutton Grove and the cheerleading squad, but she still finds herself thinking back to those times.Even when she's about to be awarded Olympic gold.
Series: Miscellaneous Mix 'n' Match [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1138406
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Sunshine Was a Sweet Place

**Author's Note:**

> I've read the book and watched 6/10 episodes of the show, and I just can't help feeling sorry for poor old Tacy. Yes, she's screwed up in the past (like when she kicked RiRi in the face) but even before then no one liked her :( 
> 
> So, I decided to make her live a happy life! 
> 
> This is my first work in this fandom and I hope you enjoy it!

The roar of the crowd is deafening, my limbs are aching and my mouth is dry from having had nothing to drink in a while. All in all, it should be an unpleasant, uncomfortable situation, but it's actually not. 

Not at all! 

The crowd is cheering because they loved my performance. My body's sore from all my hard work. And I've just been so swept up in the excitement that I haven't had the chance to grab a drink yet. 

I'm standing on the tallest podium, flanked by the Australian woman on my left and the Polish woman on my right. We are here because we deserve to be. And, in just a few minute's time, we'll be rewarded for our blood, sweat and tears. 

I scan the crowd and focus my gaze on one of the many cameras that surround us. I wave at it excitedly, as I think of the people sitting at home, watching their country take home gold. I think of people no longer in my life, and wonder if they're watching me too. My father, my old cheerleading coach, my old squadmates, Addy, Beth...

I can't help but crack a small smile as I picture them going about their everyday lives, then glancing at the TV, seeing me standing proud. _"Hey, isn't that Tacy...?"_ Imagine the looks on their faces as they realise I've reached heights that they never believed I could reach! 

I secretly hope that those vapid, cliquey bitches are jealous of me...

Okay, that was a little mean, but not even time can heal all wounds. If they think I'm going to forget and forgive the ice bath incident, they've got another think coming. Whenever I hear the sound of rattling ice cubes, I'm instantly transported back in time to the moment when my head is fully submerged in water so cold it felt like I'd lost my sense of touch. 

Next thing I knew, Addy was hauling me out of the water. I was so grateful that she had the good sense to know when enough was enough. 

Then, on that very same day, she said, with disbelief at my apparent stupidity, that I could've just gotten out by myself. 

That was the moment I realised, with 100% certainty, that I was little more than the black sheep, the unlikeable outcast. I'd thought I'd had some camaraderie with Addy, who seemed like one of the nice ones, but it turned out that not even she cared about me, either. 

The only reason I even got in that bath in the first place was so I could prove to the others that I can be strong too, but we all saw how well that turned out. 

Kicking RiRi in the face did little to change people's opinions of me. I can understand that, to be honest. The feeling of my shoe connecting with her mouth is something that still keeps me up at night. And it was all because I tried to do a bow-and-arrow even after the coach told me no. I did deserve the hate that incident brought me. 

(I still hate myself for doing that even after I ran into RiRi years later at a clothing store in Chicago and she told me not to worry about it, she was over it, she knew I didn't mean it maliciously.) 

But something that I know I didn't deserve was Beth's treatment of me. 

I understand _why_ she treated me like that; she was upset at her father for cheating on her mother, but she was taking it out on the wrong person. It's not like I _asked_ to be born to an unfaithful husband and his sidepiece. 

I may have acted like a loving daughter to them, but to be honest, they disgust me. My parentage resulted in the biggest problem of my teen years: Beth and her little army of cheerleaders. 

That's why, after I left home, I changed my surname from Cassidy to Slaussen. It was my mother's maiden name. It was the name I should have been born under. I always knew that Beth hated how we shared the same surname. Changing it also served to help sever that tie to her. 

Leaving Sutton Grove to go to college and knowing that Beth wouldn't be around to use me as her scapegoat was brilliant. I got to start fresh, with new friends and new opportunities. 

I ended up joining the college cheerleaders. Despite the brutality of the high school squad, I actually really enjoyed the actual cheering parts of it and I didn't quite want to give it up just yet. 

And so I practised. I kept at it. I told myself to never give up. And I began to believe in myself once again. 

Eventually, I got to be Flyer. No more miss limp-dick-ankles. 

The coach told me that I had improved so much and she was so proud of me, and that I could probably make it to the Olympics with skills like those; I was practically like a gymnast! 

I'm 99% sure she didn't actually mean that last part and that she was only trying to be nice, but it got the gears in my head turning. 

I took up gymnastics and fell in love with it almost immediately. I started spending most of my free time at the gym, perfecting my techniques until they were flawless. And I'm so glad I did, otherwise I wouldn't be standing on this podium right now. 

Speaking of which, the medal ceremony is starting properly now, so I'd better get my head out of my past, and pay attention! 

The Australian woman bows her head as she recieved her bronze medal from the man handing them out. She is beaming brighter than the sun. 

The Polish woman is next and she looks equally as elated, barely able to contain tears of happiness. 

And then it's my turn. The man slips my medal - gold! - around my neck. I cannot contain my tears of joy and they roll down my cheeks as I whisper _thank you!_

Then the anthem starts playing triumphantly, the crowd goes wild, and I clasp my hands together, almost unable to believe that any of this is real. 

But the weight of my shiny new medal around my neck and on my chest tells me that yes, this _is_ real, you've earned it, Tacy! 

And once again I think of my old squad: bitter Beth, her second-in-command Addy, poor RiRi, and Emily, Cory, Paige, Brinnie, Mindy, and everyone else who jeered at me and called me weak, worthless and stupid, or simply stood by watching, without doing anything. 

I think of what I've risen above. 

I'm no longer Tacy Cassisy, the black sheep of the cheerleading squad. 

I'm Tacy Slaussen, Olympic gold-medalist, and I have achieved more than anyone ever thought I could!

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the poem "Good Morning, Midnight" by Emily Dickinson. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed my story!


End file.
